The Infinite Dial

Two years ago, Radio One's R&B Oldies WAMJ Atlanta added the syndicated Steve Harvey Morning Show to a lineup that already included Michael Baisden in afternoons and Radio One's new midday talk programming. With Harvey and Baisden, already the tentpoles of many Urban AC stations, framing more conventional talk radio, we predicted "A Breakthrough For African-American News/Talk" radio, a format that had existed more than 25 years, but finally looked to get traction on a major-market FM. And part of what looked to make the format viable was that the talk shows for the African-American audience, Baisden, Harvey, Tom Joyner, Wendy Williams, etc., were already on FM -- easier then to build a FM lineup around them than to compete with them on AM.

As recently as the spring Arbitron book, that strategy was paying off. The station, now dubbed "Grown Folks Radio," was top five with a 4.2 share 12-plus to heritage Urban AC WALR's 4.8. The station was No. 2 in 18-49, a better showing in that money demo than WALR. Then Arbitron converted Atlanta to PPM and in December, WALR was at an 8.5 12-plus, while WAMJ was at a 3.1. (In the holiday report, it fell to a 2.4.)

Now Radio One has blown up its Smooth Jazz WJZZ, switching it to a more straightforward Urban AC, going head-to-head with WALR. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Rodney Ho is reporting that Baisden and Harvey, but not the rest of the talk programming, could move to WJZZ (already reimaged as Majic 107.5), while 102.5 becomes the new home of gospel WPZE.

As soon as the debate over PPM's impact on Urban radio began, programmers began to look askance at the afternoon personality shows that had increasingly seemed unbeatable. With an instant dogma of tightness and consistency taking hold among programmers in all formats, talk looked less like a secret weapon for Urban radio. And while Atlanta -- with its 30% African-American population -- has been a better PPM market for Urban radio than others, it looks like other PPM markets in that the numbers now most favor one or two Urban stations, rather than the entire suite that had done well in some diary markets.

It was not so long ago that Atlanta was one of an increasing number of markets where major groups so wanted to do Urban radio that they were willing to create a niche within a niche, as Cox did with its short-lived Hot Urban AC format on WALR. Urban radio's building boom slowed to almost nothing with the advent of PPM. And if owners aren't so eager to do Urban radio that they will cover a niche format, that doesn't bode so well for African-American Talk being replaced, if indeed Rodney Ho's scenario plays out. (And, of course, the format's potential stars will all be accounted for elsewhere.)

With every format still finding its way in a PPM world, and each absolute belief about PPM being dented by the roll-out of another market, or another month's data, there's no reason to think that African-American talk would not ultimately be viable, given how well some general market Talk stations have done. In a world that favors consistency, one might even think that Harvey and Baisden might be better served on a full-fledged talk and entertainment station, and then it's just a function of experimenting until we find the programming that best fits with them all day long. So it would be discouraging to lose the format's best test market to date.